Reading and listening progress in segregated primary schools: Does ethnic and socioeconomic classroom composition matter?

This study aimed to investigate the relationship of classroom composition factors with reading and listening comprehension achievement and progress in socially and ethnically segregated primary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Specifically, using a three‐level multivariate repeated measures analysis, it examined the association of reading and listening achievement and progress with ethnic diversity, the proportion of non‐native students and the average socioeconomic status of the class, taking into account student characteristics. At the beginning and end of the school year, reading tests, listening tests and questionnaires were administered to a sample of 7‐ and 8‐year‐old students (n = 683) in 42 second‐grade classes. Students' listening comprehension achievement at the beginning of the school year was negatively related to having a home language other than the language of instruction and to classes with a high proportion of non‐native students. However, progress in listening comprehension was not significantly associated with any student or classroom composition factors. Students whose mothers had a lower level of education performed lower on reading comprehension at the beginning of the school year, while at the end of the school year students whose mothers had a higher level of education were at a greater disadvantage. Limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.     

COURSES AND INSTRUCTION AFFECTING CRITICAL THINKING

This study investigated how different types ofcourses and instructional techniques affect students'self-reported growth in critical thinking. Data aredrawn from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program's 1989 Follow-Up Survey of 24,837students who had first entered college as freshmen in1985. Results revealed that taking writing courses,interdisciplinary courses, history courses, sciencecourses, women's studies courses, math courses, foreignlanguage courses, ethnic studies courses, and enrollingin an honors program are each positively associated withselfreported growth in critical thinking. Moreover, self-reported growth in criticalthinking is positively related to having a papercritiqued by an instructor, conducting an independentresearch project, working on a group project, giving aclass presentation, and taking essay exams, butnegatively related to taking multiple-choice exams.Overall findings, however, suggest that the impact ofclassroom experiences on students' abilities to think critically is far weaker than one might expector hope.     

Optimum take-off angle in the long jump

In this study, we found that the optimum take-off angle for a long jumper may be predicted by combining the equation for the range of a projectile in free flight with the measured relations between take-off speed, take-off height and take-off angle for the athlete. The prediction method was evaluated using video measurements of three experienced male long jumpers who performed maximum-effort jumps over a wide range of take-off angles. To produce low take-off angles the athletes used a long and fast run-up, whereas higher take-off angles were produced using a progressively shorter and slower run-up. For all three athletes, the take-off speed decreased and the take-off height increased as the athlete jumped with a higher take-off angle. The calculated optimum take-off angles were in good agreement with the athletes' competition take-off angles.     

From Pleasure Rows and Plashing Sculls to Amateur Oarswomanship: The Evolution of Women’s Amateur Rowing in Britain

Abstract

This paper considers the emergence of amateur women’s rowing between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in light of contemporaneous social norms relating to gender and sport. It does not seek to identify a foundational point for women’s rowing, nor does it offer a comprehensive survey of the development of the sport over this period. Instead, it considers women’s rowing in three key contexts: women’s university colleges, at the end of the nineteenth century; the first women-only rowing club on the Thames, established in 1896 by Dr Frederick Furnivall; and the formation of a governing body for the women’s sport in 1923. Analysis of the conditions within the sport in these environments, and their implications, leads to more nuanced consideration of the women’s sport, and of gender as a normative social construct more widely. Discussion focuses on gendered influences on sporting behaviour, manifested in institutional regulation and hegemonic authority, and the intersection of class and gender.     

Peer‐Mediated Instruction in Inclusive Secondary Social Studies Learning: Direct and Indirect Learning Effects

Ten inclusive middle school social studies classes, including 133 general education students, and 24 students with mild disabilities (21 with learning disabilities and 3 with emotional disabilities), were assigned at random to a traditional instruction condition, or an experimental condition involving classwide peer tutoring with specialized materials and parent training. After 18 weeks of instruction, posttest data revealed that students in the experimental condition gained significantly more than students in the traditional instruction condition. These effects were observed on content included in the tutoring intervention, as well as on related content that was taught but not included in the tutoring intervention. Results are discussed within the context of recent research on inclusive secondary content area instruction.     

Media Marathoning and Health Coping

This study uses Grounded Theory to analyze interviews with a dozen individuals who media marathoned while going through a health struggle. The analysis addresses five major themes: engaging in escapism that enables emotional and avoidance coping, regulating cognitive expenditure by embracing challenging or comforting content, being still to heal the body, reducing emotional and cognitive strain by engaging a continuous narrative, and tapering from the marathon when feeling better. Findings suggest that media marathoning can offer beneficial cognitive, emotional, and physical regulatory opportunities for those dealing with health struggles. Furthermore, media marathoning when dealing with a health concern is a strategic and active coping strategy that has potential health benefits.     

“We bleed for female empowerment”: mediated ethics,commodity feminism,and the contradictions of feminist politics

Discourses of female empowerment are increasingly prominent within ethical capitalism, which seeks to remedy global crises with private-sector solutions and their commodities. This article examines the intersecting manifestations of female empowerment, commodity activism, and ethical capitalism with case studies on Born Free Africa, a fashion collection combatting mother-to-child HIV transmission, and THINX, which sells “period-proof” panties. Each company articulates empowerment through a binary between the Western feminist savior and “in-need” woman of the global south. This article argues that this iteration of empowerment not only reinforces logics of neo-colonial capitalism, but also masks disciplinary regimes for individual feminine subjects.